Chapter Eleven

Jacana tapped her chin thoughtfully with the data disc, turned it over several times in her hands and finally sighed. She stared at the slot on her console and held the disc as though to slide it in, then changed her mind and tapped her chin again.

Five times she had done this so far. She didn't know what was stopping her from finding out what was on the disc. All she did know was that Khalisah had placed her trust in her, and she wasn't a woman who gave her trust easily. Admittedly she had been being chased by armed men and had few other options at the time, but even so.

She glanced up at her television screen where the news was playing quietly in the background: "Sha'ira's, on the Presidium was attacked earlier today. The unknown mercenaries stormed the building, shot and killed four attendants and two clients and then left before C-Sec arrived on the scene. The motive for the attack is unknown."

Jacana sighed, this was getting out of hand. The Shadow Broker should have told her how much that damned inheritance was worth from the beginning, she would have handled things a lot differently if she had known half the Bekenstein hierarchy was going to come after her.

Her communicator beeped.

"Operative Menthe, your status update is due."

She cast the comm a bitter look and ignored it as it began to flash expectantly for her response. She hadn't heard from Khalisah since they had split up in the alley, she had arrived home over three hours ago, night had fallen and there had been nothing. She had put every agent in the area on alert, hoping they could keep Khalisah safe without revealing themselves. She was sure the Broker didn't approve, he likely considered Khalisah expendable, like he considered everyone expendable.

"Operative Menthe, I require an update."

She hit the off switch and the comm fell silent. She considered going out to find Khalisah herself, but that would only cause problems if she did manage to make it to the apartment on her own. She looked back at the data disk and considered that it might hold useful data that would help, but was that a breach of trust? She scrunched her hand into a fist and screamed, it wasn't often that she didn't know what to do.

There was a knock at the door and she looked up sharply before grabbing her pistol and crossing the room. She opened the door just a crack and peered through cautiously until she saw the elegant figure of a human woman silhouetted by the light of the corridor.

"Khalisah!" she grabbed her and pulled her inside, swiftly locking the door again before taking her by the arms and looking her up and down, "Are you alright? Did they find you?"

She could see Khalisah was shaken but to her credit she straightened up, broadened her shoulders, tossed a loose lock back from her eyes and shook her head.

"No. I think I was being tracked by at least six different groups but they were too busy fighting each other to catch up with me. Then my father's men turned up, he seems to have sent his whole private army. I don't think anyone followed me here though."

For reasons Jacana couldn't quite comprehend, she pulled Khalisah tightly into a hug, holding her close so that she could smell the scent of citrus in her hair and feel the soft locks against her cheek, "Thank the Goddess, I thought I'd got you killed."

"You?" Khalisah queried as she gently pulled herself free.

"I'm the one who took you to Sha'ira's, then left you in that alley. If I'd had any idea how serious all this was I swear-

"Forget about it. It's me who dragged you into my problems, I should be the one apologizing."

Jacana felt a twinge of guilt as Khalisah wearily crossed the room and leaned heavily on the kitchen counter. The news report was still droning softly in the background and she glanced up at the screen where the pictures of all six victims were being displayed. Robin wasn't among them, but the two attendants he had been with were. She sighed and shook her head.

"Guns. Invented to kill. What good could ever come from that?" Jacana said nothing, discretely slipping her own pistol back into its holster as Khalisah turned to look at her, "Have you got the data disc I gave you?"

"Yes."

"Did you look at what's on it?"

"Of course not."

Khalisah gave her a curious look, a smile twitching at the corner of her mouth, then she held out her hand. Jacana handed the disc over and followed Khalisah to the console.

"May I?" Khalisah asked and sat as she slipped the disc into the drive and waited. Jacana leaned in over her shoulder as the data came up on the screen. It was heavily encrypted and it took Khalisah a few minutes to get past the multiple passwords and firewalls until, eventually, the image of a young human girl came up on the screen, along with a list of personal details.

From her date of birth Jacana worked out that she was ten years old, dark hair hung sweetly in ringlets about her shoulders and she was grinning brightly like children do, her emerald eyes dazzling. Jacana looked at the name: Daniyah Hock.

Khalisah leaned back and watched her reaction calmly, "Donovan and I have a daughter."

Jacana blinked at the girl, she was the spitting image of Khalisah, right down to the eyebrows, "Is she on Bekenstein?"

"No. I took her with me when I left. I sent her to Earth, haven't seen her in years."

The school fees, Jacana suddenly realised, for a school that protected it pupils' identities so that even the Broker couldn't find them, "Why didn't you go with her?"

"We'd be easier to track if we were together. Once I decided to run away, Donovan wasn't interested in getting me back but he wanted Daniyah, he and my father threw everything into trying to find her."

"But you didn't want that?"

Khalisah folded her arms, chewing at the corner of her mouth as she seemed to consider her answer, "Growing up rich on Bekenstein isn't the fairy tale everyone imagines. Everything comes down to business and profit. Girls are sold as wives to rich men as part of contracts between powerful families, our one and only purpose to produce heirs for their empires. Empires built on slavery and extortion, all enforced by private mercenary armies. Thugs with guns, if you like. It's dressed up behind wealth and luxury and made to look pretty but that's what it boils down to."

"That's…"

"Barbaric," Khalisah finished for her, "you understand why I want to keep her away?"

Jacana nodded slowly, "What about Robin? He said he offered to help you run away before you married Donovan."

Khalisah snorted but smiled nostalgically all the same, "He was a lot younger than me, worshiped the ground I walked on. Probably thought I was sex on legs. The boys don't fare much better than the girls on Bekenstein, not the kind ones anyway. His plan wouldn't have worked, and even if it had, I would just have been using him, like my parents used me. That's all anyone does really, we're just tools to each other. No one cares about anyone but themselves."

Jacana hesitated, in the dim light of her apartment, Khalisah's eyes were gleaming with a lifelong bitterness but Jacana believed that part of her wanted to be proved wrong, "I don't believe that."

"No?" she looked at her sharply, aggression returning so suddenly to her voice that it took Jacana off-guard, "You wanted to use me to advance your career. I'm using you to protect me from the thugs who want that money."

"But you're protecting your daughter, you've gone through hell just to keep her safe," she looked at the smiling girl on the screen and frowned, "but I don't understand, what does she have to do with the inheritance?"

Khalisah didn't answer at once, also gazing at the screen quietly, "I told you that I don't have the encryption key, and it's true, I don't. But I know who does."

Jacana looked between her and the picture, then nodded softly as she understood, "Daniyah? She has the key?"

She smiled sadly and shook her head "She is the key. Donovan's finances are encrypted with her DNA."

"Her DNA?" Jacana frowned and faltered, DNA encryption was one of the most secure methods in the galaxy for protecting any kind of data but whoever's DNA you used, it always made them a target, "Does your father know?"

"No one knows, not even Daniyah herself. Donovan only ever told me," she cleared her throat, suddenly becoming uncomfortable as she fidgeted and turned away, "I don't know why I told you, really."

Jacana watched her carefully, "Because you trust me?"

Khalisah didn't argue, she didn't agree, but she didn't argue as she made a point of avoiding Jacana's gaze.

"I would happily take Donovan's money, you know. I'm owed it. And I would make much better use of it than those bastards who currently run Bekenstein. But I won't hand Daniyah over to get it. She's safe on Earth, I won't involve her in this."

Jacana nodded, "I understand. What about this data disc? Why do you carry it with you?"

She looked at the picture of her daughter on the screen, "It's the only record of where she is and how to find her. I use it to contact her a few times every week."

"When was the last time you saw her in person?"

"When I sent her away. About five years ago now," she turned to look at Jacana sadly, her eyes glistening brightly, "That's a long time for a human child. She's a different person now."

There was pain in her eyes and in an almost instinctive response to it Jacana reached up a hand to brush Khalisah's hair back from her brow, the dark strands slipping easily through her fingers like silk, "I'm sorry. What are you going to do?"

She shrugged helplessly, "I don't know."